8 Reasons Not To Let Callers To Your Practice Listen To Voice Mail
Do you have an automated phone answering system in your medical practice? Perhaps you enjoy the convenience and potential initial cost savings. Well, sooner than later, you’re likely to notice that you’re losing customers with complaints of poor customer service. The first impression counts and patients today prefer talking to a live operator who can empathize with their conditions. Read on to understand why now it’s time to ditch your voice mail service.
Fails at instant gratification
Relying on an automated phone answering system has a huge risk of losing potential customers. Patients and caretakers call a medical practice looking forward to getting solutions to health issues. However, voice mail can’t respond to their concerns leading to frustration. The most likely action in such a situation is hanging up and calling a competitor. The solution is to hire a 24/7 live answering service to offer immediate assistance that your customers crave.
Confusing customers
When a patient calls your practice when you have an automated phone service, patience and concentration are key. This is because the patient is subjected to a range of options to make a choice. Taking too long to choose the right option that will give them a solution to their problem becomes confusing. The customer is likely to end up not getting a solution to their concern.
Low efficiency
Automated answering systems give customers a sea of options that require patience before getting the information they wanted. This slows down the service and ties up phone lines causing other callers to become frustrated and hang up. Luckily, a professional physician answering service has operators who promptly respond to callers. Eliminating delays in customer responses significantly enhances satisfaction.
Prone to malfunction
Technology promotes efficiency and convenience when in good condition. However, it requires regular maintenance to ensure it keeps working properly to meet your expectation. Regardless of maintenance, technology can breakdown from other factors and it comes with disastrous impacts. Luckily, doctor answering services have a combination of live operators and updated technology to ensure the smooth running of operations. The operators are always available to respond to patients’ concerns.
Poor emergency response
Emergencies can happen at any time. In addition, it might obviously be one of the top reasons to call your practice. However, it’s likely to put callers in an awkward solution to call your practice only to be requested to leave a voicemail. In such a life-threatening situation, the caller is likely to hand up and call another practice with live operators who can offer appropriate assistance.
Lacks personal connection
Patients want to talk to someone who can empathize with their conditions. This is impossible with an automated answering system. Perhaps the caller wants a quick diagnosis or instructions on prescription refill. The patient would prefer a live and friendly operator to chat them up and instantly address their concerns. Voicemail is impersonal and can’t offer customized solutions to patient problems.
Discourages repeat customers
Just like for any other business, repeat customers are the backbone to make it thrive. Therefore, before new customers come, it’s important to cater to the needs of repeat customers to prevent them from moving to other providers. This is possible if you can cater to their needs promptly without frustrating or inconveniencing them. this is where a live answering service scores highly over voicemail. With a client list, the live operator can chat to customers by their names while handling their issues. This will significantly make such customers become loyal to your practice.
Poor at winning new customers
Apart from repeat customers, your practice also needs to get new clients. People call a medical practice and stick to one that offers instant gratification as noticed above. When you have a live answering service, the operators are always available to handle customer concerns. This has a chance of winning some new customers who are desperate to get solutions to their issues.
Bottom line
An automated answering service seems cheap at first glance but costly in the long run. It’s likely to cost your medical practice customers and income inflow. The best thing to do for your practice is by partnering with an answering service. This will save you a significant amount and enhance productivity while offering customized services that your customers crave.
Author Bio
Mike Haynes is a Fitness & Nutritionist Who Believes in Living a healthy Lifestyle.He Loves to write about Fitness & Nutrition. He is also a expert advisor of Medical billing company which is dedicated to provide accurate billing of patients,daily fitness tips, detailed fitness guides & fitness gear reviews.
